Card fraud at a 10-year low October 6, 2010 Credit card fraud losses in the first six months of the year plunged to their lowest level for 10 years, at just £187m, the banking industry said yesterday. Online banking fraud was 36 per cent lower than in the first half of last year, at £25m, said the UK Cards Association. Phone banking fraud was [...]
Toyota’s Prius sales take a tumble October 6, 2010 Japanese sales of the Toyota Prius have fallen for the first time in almost a year-and-a-half after a government subsidy for buying more eco-friendly cars ended, industry figures suggest. The hybrid motor is Japan’s most popular car, with 27,249 sold in September, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. However, this was 14 per cent [...]
Growth in UK boosts Robert Walters’ fees October 6, 2010 GLOBAL recruiter Robert Walters has seen a spike in fees during the third quarter, driven by strong growth in the UK and Asia. Robert Walters said that gross profit for the three months to the end of September soared 65 per cent to £42.5m. The rise is against a low comparison last year when fees [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ROBERT WALTERS’ RESULTS? October 6, 2010 KEAN MARDEN | ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND At the divisional level, Asia Pacific was softer than expected – according to the company this was driven by financial services hiring rather than a general loss of momentum around the Australian general election – and the UK’s stronger performance. CAROLINE DE LA SOUJEOLE | SEYMOUR PIERCE Robert [...]
Hays boss sees a £200,000 cut in annual pay October 6, 2010 ALISTAIR Cox, chief executive of recruiter Hays, saw his pay shrink by £200,000 to take home £1.56m last year, according to the company’s annual report. The report that showed Cox took home a base salary of £630,000 and received a cash bonus of £422,000 during that time. Similarly, finance director Paul Venables took a £200,000 [...]
China warns EU it will not back down October 6, 2010 CHINESE premier Wen Jiabao told the European Union (EU) yesterday to stop piling pressure on Beijing to revalue its currency, saying a rapid shift could unleash disastrous social turmoil. Wen told an EU-China business forum in Brussels that China would implement a reform of its currency regime announced in June, making the exchange rate more [...]
CITY A.M. | SHADOW MPC October 6, 2010 ALLISTER HEATH | CITY A.M. “With the services sector growing at a faster rate, the supply and velocity of money accelerating, and inflation too high, it is time for a symbolic quarter point hike in rates.” SIMON WARD | HENDERSON “Maintain vote for quarter-point hike. Monetary conditions are loose with velocity recovering, while CPI inflation [...]
Growth concerns and inflation cause a three-way split October 6, 2010 FOR the second consecutive month, a three-way split has emerged among City A.M.’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members ahead of the Bank of England’s policy announcement scheduled for midday today. Two members voted for an increase in interest rates of 0.25 per cent while two others thought the time had come to extend quantitative [...]
Weak US employment figures give Fed room for fresh policy stimulus October 6, 2010 US private employers unexpectedly shed jobs in September, reinforcing the conviction that the US Federal Reserve as early as next month will embark on another round of monetary policy stimulus to support the economic recovery. ADP’s national employment report yesterday said US private employer payrolls fell by 39,000 jobs in September. The median forecast from [...]
Sausage showdown gets apprentices sizzling October 6, 2010 Before series six of The Apprentice had even begun there’d been a promotion: step forward Lord Sugar of Clapton. Not that all that ermine and refined company has done much to soften him. “You all look good on paper”, he told the 16 new candidates, “but then so do fish and chips”. It was midnight [...]
